


He’ll See Me, But I Won’t See Him

by bettythetl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:16:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettythetl/pseuds/bettythetl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam jumps into the Cage with Adam, Dean asks Cas to take him to see his brother in the past. Sam remembers those visits but never tells Dean, and when he's in the Cage, he finally realizes why Dean came to visit him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He’ll See Me, But I Won’t See Him

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [AU Photoset](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/25764) by itsokaysammy. 



> I was having a problem working on my minibang earlier, so I asked a friend for some writing prompts. I came across a photoset where Dean asks one last favor of Cas to take him to see Sammy after he falls into the Cage and the bunny bit me and didn’t let me go. So this happened because of that. Hope you enjoy.

Sam never told Dean. He took his secret to the Cage, and after he was sealed inside with his little brother who hated him and the archangels who had taken them over, he realized just why Dean started making random, surprise visits to him throughout his childhood. At the realization, Sam had sat down heavily on the floor of the constructed world inside the Cage, tears running unchecked down his cheeks. 

Adam tended to avoid everyone as much as he possibly could, which wasn’t much or very often, but he avoided Sam the most. Adam had been told by Michael just what kind of men the other two Winchester brothers were, and he wanted nothing to do with the determined and desperate men he met before saying yes to Michael. Sam, especially, he stayed clear of because he knew what kind of man he was: desperate, manipulative, and lying. He never looked over when Lucifer started in on Sam, and he never tried to help. Adam heard Sam’s screams, and he heard his desperate cries for Dean.

Never once did he see Sam cry as brokenly as he was watching him do now. He had seen Sam’s soul begin to tatter at the edges, burnt and torn, but he never saw Sam cry like he couldn’t help it. Until now. Michael, who usually tried to watch Adam like a hawk and barricade him from Lucifer, was currently fighting  _with_  Lucifer, so he couldn’t stop Adam from going to Sam. He wasn’t worried, exactly. He was curious. What could have happened while Lucifer and Michael were fighting and nowhere near the two Winchesters to make Sam like this?

Tipping his head to the side, Adam stopped in front of Sam and looked down just as Sam looked up. “What happened?” Adam asked, voice even.

Sam sniffed and tried to get a hold of himself, answering with an expression in his eyes as bitter as his voice, “Do you care?”

“Not really. I just wanted to know what happened. It’s not like I have anything else to do while we’re down here.” Adam gestured expansively to punctuate his point before looking back down at Sam.

“Dean,” Sam choked out, “Dean happened.” Whatever had happened to or because of Dean caught up with Sam again, and Adam watched him tip his head back against the wall and bite his tongue hard. Those two. Adam shook his head, not understanding the ridiculous hold the two of them had on each other. He waited for Sam to talk again, waiting long enough that he sat across from Sam on the floor to ease the pull at the back of his neck from looking down.

When Sam did speak again, Adam almost missed what he said over the crashes and screams in the other part of the “house” constructed for the moment. “When I was growing up, Dean used to visit me,” Sam began, his voice cracking and uneven. “And I don’t mean after I left. He visited me from the future for a couple of hours at a time.”

Adam didn’t hold back the scoff and he raised his eyebrows at Sam. “Really. The future. So he finally drove you nuts. Good to know.” Adam moved to get up but Sam stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

Adam looked down at Sam’s hand, but before he could tug himself away, Sam spoke again, voice a little stronger. “I thought I was crazy when it was first happening. I mean, I’d  _just_  seen my brother walk out the door but then a guy walks in not a minute later claiming to be him even though he’s a good ten years older. He had Dean’s necklace, and he told me things that only Dean would know.” Adam stopped trying to get away and just listened now, as Sam’s voice gained strength and a faint smile quirked the corners of his mouth.

“I asked him at one visit what I was like in the future, and he said, ‘A little geekier and taller than you are now’,” Sam quoted in a passable impression of his brother’s voice before laughing slightly. “The third time he came to visit me, I asked him why he was doing it, and he dodged the question asking if he needed a reason to check up on his little brother.” Sam’s voice died again, and Adam saw a muscle in his jaw jump tighten and release before he continued, voice rougher than before. “I used to have weird memories that I’d ignore of Dean holding me when I’d skinned my knee as a little kid or when I was crying by myself, but he was the wrong Dean. He was too big, but he held me like Dad never did and the Dean I knew then never could because I was the wrong size to be held like that. I always felt safe when he was around, like he could stop the monsters from getting anywhere near me.”

Sam choked up again, the muscles around his mouth twitching minutely as tears tracked down his face. Adam almost made him stop. He didn’t want to hear it anymore. He didn’t want his views of Sam or Dean to change. They were the reason his dad couldn’t be around. Sam derailed Adam’s thoughts as he whispered the rest of his story, “The last time he visited me, I didn’t understand what was going on. We’d just come off a bad hunt when an innocent woman died, and I’d gone off by myself. He found me, and we talked. Then he looked so brave when he told me that it would be his last trip, and he said, ‘I’ll see you, Sammy’ like he always did.” 

Sam stopped and looked up at Adam, his lower lip caught slightly in his teeth and a broken smile half-heartedly curling his lips. “Thing is,  _I_  saw  _him_  after then, but the future version never did visit me again. So now that I’m here,  _he’ll_  see  _me_  again by going into our past and visiting me when I need him the most.” Sam stopped and looked to the side, a grin on his face but blankness in his eyes before continuing one last time, “He’ll see me, but I’ll never get to see him again.”

Adam watched as Sam leaned his head back again, staring up at the construct’s ceiling blankly. Without saying anything, Adam left Sam where he was and went to the other part of their not-house to find Michael. Without acknowledging Lucifer as he left the room, Adam begged Michael without preamble, “Take him back.” When Michael just tipped his borrowed head to the side, Adam elaborated, “Take Sam back to his brother.”

Michael straightened his head and asked flatly, “Why should I do that?”

“You said you’d give me back my mother, but I don’t want her down here. I don’t want her to know that I willingly said yes to someone who was willing to kill the rest of my family. Use the power you were going to use to unite us to give Sam back to his brother, safe and sound. I know this cage was built to keep in your brother, but it wasn’t made to keep humans inside it. Take him back.” It was the most Adam had said since he left the Winchesters at Bobby’s house, and he didn’t back down when Michael just stared at him. He still didn’t care about Sam and Dean, not by a long shot. He just recognized the desperate sadness raging through Sam as the one he felt whenever he thought of his mother. 

Silence reigned between the two of them for a moment as they stared at each other before Michael abruptly turned and left the room at the sound of Sam Winchester’s screams beginning anew. Adam followed and reached the room in time to see Michael intervene for the first time where Sam was concerned, blocking Lucifer’s attempts to get to Sam again and healing Sam’s battered soul with his Grace. From across the room, Sam looked at Adam, wild-eyed and truly scared for the first time, and Adam gave him a faint smile, unknowingly reminding Sam of the Adam he had known before.

Keeping a hold of Sam’s gaze, Adam mouthed the words “Tell him thank you,” before they both threw their hands up to protect their ears and clenched their eyes shut as the tension exploded abruptly into the brightest light and sharpest sound either of them had even seen or heard. When the spots left Adam’s eyes and ringing in his ears dissipated, he looked up to see just Michael before him in a bright, endless room. The only thing in there aside from the two of them was a large mirror.

The mirror showed just Adam and Michael’s chosen vessel-construct, a younger John Winchester, until Michael snapped his fingers. The mirror’s image smoked over for a moment before showing Dean Winchester. Adam stepped closer without meaning to, watching as Dean stared up at the ceiling and ran one hand through his hair before resting it on top of his head. His eyebrows were drawn together, and the corners of his mouth were tight, his chest heaving once with a heavy breath. Adam felt a pang watching him, and he turned his head to look at Michael, who only smirked faintly and tipped his head towards the mirror again. 

Adam turned back in time for the mirror’s image to shift to the side like a camera panning to the side and focus in on the doorway to the room Dean was lying down in. Adam’s eyes widened as he saw Sam in the doorway, saw his mouth form Dean’s name, and saw Dean sit up and turn so abruptly that he nearly cracked his head on the night stand when he lost his balance. Adam moved closer to the mirror and saw Sam rush to catch his brother, watched the two of them just stare at each other in disbelief for a long moment. The moment broke with Dean’s hoarse voice whispering, “Sammy?”

Adam jumped at the sound, having assumed that the mirror didn’t have sound. As he turned to look at Michael, he realized that he could hear because he wasn’t just watching anymore. Adam was in the room with Sam and Dean with neither Michael nor the mirror visible, and he made a choked sound of surprise as he turned back to Sam and Dean. Their desperate clinging broke apart at the noise, and Sam’s tear-swollen eyes widened before he bounded over and clung to Adam as well, thanking him over and over breathlessly. Adam stiffened and looked over at Dean, whose eyes were just as wide as Sam’s had been.

Michael let him out of the Cage, too. Why? Adam never said anything about leaving, had been ready to stay behind while Sam got to be with his brother… Sam broke into his thoughts again, something Adam thought Sam was quite good at, asking hoarsely, “What did you do? How did you get him to let us out?”

Adam’s jaw worked, but no sound came out for a moment. He looked back and forth between the brothers before he replied faintly, “I told him to take you back to your brother instead of bringing my mom to me.” Sam and Dean both gaped at him, and Adam stepped back from Sam, bringing his arms up to cross them over his chest and hunching his shoulders slightly.

Sam stepped back as well, and Dean moved so he stood next to his brother, their sides nearly pressed together as they looked at Adam. “You gave up your mom to get Sammy back to me?” Dean asked, and Adam nearly rolled his eyes. Hadn’t he just said that? Instead, he just nodded, still hunched in on himself and watched as the two brothers turned to each other, communicating silently with an ease that Adam found himself abruptly envying. Sam and Dean were apart for who knew how long while he and Sam were in the Cage, but they were able to have a whole conversation without words. 

Dean nodded at Sam once before he stepped forward to offer his hand to Adam, who couldn’t help his flinch. Dean didn’t pull back, just left his hand out as he stated, “Dean Winchester. Nice to meet you, little brother.”

Adam just stared at Dean before he looked over at Sam, who Adam now noticed never actually stopped crying, as he tipped his head to the side in question and got a weak smile and a nod in return. Turning back to Dean, Adam clasped Dean’s hand and replied evenly, “Adam Milligan. Nice to meet you, too.” Adam saw Sam’s smile widen, and he added abruptly, “This doesn’t automatically fix everything. You know that.”

Sam nodded and stepped up to Adam, hesitating for a moment before putting his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “I know. But it’s a start.”

Adam looked back and forth between Sam and Dean for a long moment before nodding, that faint smile quirking one corner of his mouth. Yeah. It was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> This work has also been posted at my tumblr: http://bettythetl.tumblr.com/post/57682514660


End file.
